


Press Paws

by CasieMod



Category: Deus Ex (Video Games), Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Genre: Both figuratively and literally, Fluff, Gen, Humor, pets au, this is a very fluffy story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-11
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-21 14:25:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14286858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CasieMod/pseuds/CasieMod
Summary: Pritchard reluctantly takes a vacation from Sarif Industries and unexpectedly makes a new friend.





	1. Wednesday

**Author's Note:**

> for National Pet Day April 11, 2018 : )

"So I was talking with Athene and she alerted me that it's been 3 years since you last took a vacation--"

"I'm quite alright, it won't be necessary--"

"I'm not asking you I'm telling you. Take some time off, Frank."

The thought of anyone else besides him handling Sarif Industries' cybersecurity was an affront to him, only he was the best person to keep doing the job of keeping attackers at bay, hadn't he done that successfully for the past SEVEN years without fail? Sure his last performance review had come back citing issues regarding his employee interactions but what is that in comparison to protecting the ENTIRE LIVELIHOODS of those employees, even as they seem to try to thwart your efforts at every turn, maybe unwittingly, but sometimes he wasn't so sur--

"Frank? Did you hear me? I know you put in a lot of hours during the events of a month ago and you really came through. The catastrophe you and Jensen managed to help avoid . . . " Sarif trailed off a bit as his mind seemed to wander considering the possibilities, but he quickly snapped back to attention. 

"Anyway, starting tomorrow, I want you to take a week off, though you can take more if you'd like."

"But what if there's an emergency--"

"No butts, your tech lead can handle it for the time being. If something really bad happens, don't worry, we'll call you," the CEO said with authority and finality. " Just let Athene know how long you'll be. " 

Frank knew there was no arguing with David "My Way" Sarif; he'd been there before and lost. The cybersecurity chief wouldn't admit to himself the thoughts of possibly being replaced when someone else was manning the ship, however unlikely it was at this time. Defeated, he slowly stalked back to his tech lab, the Sinatra song now in his head. Leave it to Pritchard to be upset over being told to take time _off_ from work. 

Reaching his computer lair, he was surprised to find the other chief of security sitting on his couch, looking at a data tablet. He seemed to be waiting for him.

"So what glamorous place are you going to for vacation, or are you just going to work on your monitor tan and play video games the entire time?" Jensen deadpanned.

Frank stopped short at the words, "Wait, are you the one who made Sarif force me to take time off?" Immediately his mind went to conspiratorial places.

"What? I didn't make him do anything, I merely mentioned you looked like you were running ragged, even more than you usually do, for the past couple weeks or so. He just informed me that you would be taking a week off. So he's making you take it?"

"It wasn't up for debate."

"Well, you may be the first person I met who's actually reluctant to go on vacation. What are you afraid of, ruining that fine pale complexion of yours?" Jensen smirked before resuming scanning over the data tablet disinterestedly.  
"You know, I hear people do need something called vitamin D. It's something you get from the sun, you should try it sometime, like I don't know, at a park. Sitting quietly and reflecting on your life," Jensen looked away from the tablet again and back at the hacker. "Who knows, you might enjoy it?" 

Frank gave Adam a mild, one-eyebrow-raised glare but said nothing. Even as he was being teased by the security chief, he got the sense that the barbs weren't intended for stinging anymore.

"Don't worry Francis, I'll hold down the fort while you're gone," Jensen said as he got up to leave.

"My god, we're doomed," Frank said nonchalantly as he went back to work now making preparations for his unexpected free time.

\-----------  
Arriving home, an exhaustion Frank hadn't even been fully aware of collapsed on him. He slunk down in the couch, dropping his bag nearby. He took a good look at his place, as if re-acquainting himself with an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time: Game posters on the walls. A book shelf partly full of comics, game art, and technical books, otherwise housing a party of various action figures. An entire corner filled with computer components, tools, and tech toys including his floppy disk drive choir. Next to the TV a pile of video games, several game consoles, and controllers among a mass of wires.... All in all not that far off from his office at Sarif, just covered with a thicker layer of dust. The hacker had been more or less sleeping at work with brief breaks for just about the last month. 

For a few moments he just sat there, and after a while he noticed. . . the deafening quiet. Pritchard had been choosy about where he lived as soon as the living he made at SI afforded it to him. He picked a place further away from work than those living at Chiron's apartments, but it was in a decent part of town, and he'd managed to find a duplex situation with a garage which suited his privacy needs well. He had no noisy neighbors to contend with and was now reminded of that fact. Usually, it was something he appreciated, but now it was something he felt unused to. Frank shook off the feeling as he crawled into bed, exhaustion soon leading to sleep.


	2. Thursday - Saturday, Days 1-3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pritchard tries to enjoy his free time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nils Frahm - More  
> https://youtu.be/gH2IVFKAx9M
> 
> Musical inspiration for this chapter.  
> (hint, hint i'm telling you to play it while reading cause that's how I roll)  
> Thanks @shir0gane for the song rec  
> : )

The next day, Frank still woke up at the regular time he needed to be up for work, the habit fully ingrained. He went about fixing himself breakfast and even got dressed as normal. He figured he'd be receiving a call soon anyway, there would be something they'd need his help with. So he sat there leisurely sipping his coffee and perusing the news on a data tablet, waiting.

But no calls came, not so much as a text.

_Well. . . .that's just because I've done my job so well. Things can run on their own for a while. Of course._

So after a while and before more thoughts could start to pervade his mind again, he jumped on the opportunity to get back into some games he missed while things were crazy. Although instead of addressing his game backlog and trying a new game, he felt nostalgic.

_Ah yes, a classic! The Witcher circa 2015, fine vintage._

And so he dusted off and fired up old consoles and replayed, game after classic game. Thursday and Friday passed like this. 

By Saturday, though, he felt himself becoming restless. He visited his old forum haunts, posted rants and musings, but it didn't quite make the restlessness go away like he thought it would. And then he sat with the quiet, again, and the off feelings he didn't want to address came back. Pretty soon it occurred to him he might be missing the bustle of his work day. 

_Now why would I miss that?_

But he didn't have an answer for himself. Soon, his feelings turned to ones of stir craziness. Jensen's joking suggestion that he go to a park popped up in his thoughts. At first he dismissed it, but now the idea actually held some sort of appeal. A part of him that thought otherwise was small in the wake of the rush to get out the door, anything to help stop him from thinking too hard about certain things, to replace the quiet with some noise.

He found a park not that far away from his house. 

_Why am I doing this? I could work on my script at home without having to worry about someone mugging me. A coffee bar would be a better place to work on it, certainly much safer in that regard. But ohh that's so cliche! Ugh why am I here, why am I listening to Jensen of all people, he didn't even mean it, this is ridiculous._

Frank's paranoia was too ingrained to avoid these thoughts swarming about just below his consciousness. He found a bench and sat for a moment, taking stock of his surroundings: a few joggers, a guy playing with a tiny toy drone with friends, a couple lounging on a blanket and reading, several people walking their dogs, a family having a picnic, a cart vendor selling ice cream. . . altogether not a scene that screamed imminent danger. The air had a freshness to it as if after a recent rain and the sky was a somewhere between overcast and sunny, creating a brightness that wasn't overbearing. Slowly, Frank relaxed a bit, pulled out his laptop and began to work on his script. He found he fell into it quite easily in this setting and managed to write a good amount before the laptop's battery started giving out. 

_Crap I'd forgotten how finicky the charge on this could be._

He'd taken one of his older bare bones laptops with him in this instance. Didn't want a fancy piece of tech to attract attention out in the fleshspace. He scrambled around in his bag for a battery backup for a little extra juice. Out of luck there too; he managed to forget that too.

"Well that's just great," he said, throwing a hand up.

_Time to go to plan B._

He scooped out his phone. The break in focus also made him realize his hunger so he also snatched the deli sandwich he'd brought from an insulated bag, took a couple bites, and placed the rest on his lap. He pulled up a turn-based puzzle mobile video game on his phone and set about to manuvering his player character through a series of armored enemies and robots, hacking environmental features along the way.

_Pffff, I could design a more challenging game than this._

He figured out several levels quickly, and even as he was immersed in the game, the cybersecurity chief got the sense of a pair of eyes on him. So he pressed pause on the game and looked around, only to start at a presence on the opposite end of the park bench. An all black cat was perched there, staring at him intently, or maybe rather, the sandwich on his lap. Frank was startled by how his peripheral vision hadn't picked up this visitor, at just how silent the cat had been. It didn't exactly look to be in the best state of health; its coat was shabby, it looked like it'd barely managed to survive several fights with other cats or maybe even a dog. The creature was so skinny the outline of its ribs were visible. The feline sat crouched, its body all hunched up together in a tight package, its scrawny tail deftly wound around itself in self-comfort. The cat's gaze moved between Pritchard's sandwich and his face, as if asking. 

_My, my you're a pathetic-looking thing, aren't you?. . . . ..I suppose I could spare some turkey from this sandwich, it's not that good anyway._

Frank pulled some of the meat from his sandwich and tossed it over to the feline, who inspected it briefly before gobbling it down. When done, the cat continued to stare at him intently, then meowed plaintively. Frank sighed.

_Yeah this sandwich was sub-par. You can have it._

He tossed over more and more until it was all gone. While the cat was busy finishing off the last bits, Frank decided his outing to the park was over and packed up his things.

_I don't really see what's so special about being in a park, but at least I got some work done. The weather even decided to cooperate._

As Frank made his way over to his motorcycle parked nearby, he noticed the cat had started following him.

"I've got nothing left for you, you can go away now," he said and then immediately felt silly and stopped.

_I'm not talking to a cat._

He sat there on the electric motorcycle for a moment regarding the cat who looked at him silently with wide yellow-green eyes, then shook his head and tried to shoo it away with a lackluster wave of his hand before he started up and left. The cat stared on in his wake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The game he's playing on his phone is Deus Ex: Go  
> Go go fourth wall break.


	3. Sunday, Day 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pritchard receives a visitor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katuchat - Watercolor  
> https://youtu.be/yabjUF2cJ2Y
> 
> Musical inspiration for this chapter.

The next morning Frank felt the restlessness return, making him on some level realize he had had a respite from it yesterday. Maybe, Jensen's suggestion had actually worked. But instead of going to the park again, he decided a pleasure drive out on his bike would help the matter this time. When he made his way down to the garage, he spotted what looked like a really dirty dark rag on his motocycle's seat. But when he drew closer, he realized it wasn't a refuse rag, but the cat that had begged him for food yesterday, all curled up in a ball, sleeping.

"Heeeey!" Frank exclaimed, which startled the kitty awake. 

The cat responded with a loud meow of its own that sounded almost equally annoyed from the rude awakening. In an attempt to get the cat off his bike without actually touching it, Frank made a series of ineffectual shooing noises and motions. 

_What are you even doing here? I can't believe you . . . . followed me home?_

Kitty just yawned, got up, stretched, and finally looked like it was going to move, but turned around a few times in place and just sat back down in a rolled up ball of matted fur. This just exasperated Frank.

 _How did you even get in here?_

The hacker looked around the garage; it's not like it was easy to get in. Soon, he found the entry point, a small side window that he'd forgotten about since a pile of boxes covered it, had been nudged open. Frank made sure to close this 'security loophole' and went back to his bike, but the cat hadn't moved.

 _Well then I guess you're coming along for the ride._

Frank started up the engine and this finally persuaded the feline to jump off. 

_Thought so._

The cat seemed not yet ready to stop napping and retreated to a corner of the yard and laid back down, still watching the hacker as he left.

\-----------  
A few hours later, Frank returned home. The ride wasn't quite as helpful as he thought it would be; major traffic re-routing due to an event detracted from it. He took his helmet off, casually scanned the yard and garage, and noticing no signs of life, headed for the stairs back up to his house. As he went up a flight, he suddenly heard a familiar sound from behind that stopped him short. He turned and a shadow made of mottled fur stood out starkly against the light gray color of the stairway. 

_How the hell did you just materialize out of thin air?_

The cat just meowed loudly at him, the same kind of pitiful cry he'd heard yesterday.

 _You certainly are persistent, and stubborn._

The cat looked so tired that meows seemed to be all it could muster.

Frank sighed. _Guess I'm doing this._

"Fine you can come in, but you aren't getting anything until you take a bath. I feel diseased just looking at you."

The cat followed him up the rest of the stairs and into his home, cautiously. Frank immediately headed to the bathroom and drew a bath. The cat sniffed curiously at the new environs. Frank covered himself with rubber gloves and mask as if he was about to do some deep cleaning; he may have never had a cat before, but the notion that cats and water didn't usually mix was still something of which he was aware.

"Hey, uh cat, cat ?" He tried to call it to him. 

Quietly, the kitty crept over, its tail held low. Frank gingerly picked it up and placed it in the bath, making sure to keep its head above the water. He set about the task, carefully cleaning the cat who just closed its eyes mostly and was surprisingly calm. All the dirt, dust, and grime came out in the process, and the bath water looked murky by the end.

 _Hmm, you must have really had it bad to put up with all this. I bet this is a cakewalk for you in comparison._

The cats seemed too weak to launch much of a protest at the bath. Besides a few mews, the bath ended without incident. The cat stood up in the receding water looking very rat-like and quite possibly reaching the utter nadir of pathetic appearance. Frank carefully towel dried it off next to an area heater. Soon the cat's own grooming instincts took over once Frank had done what he could. Leaving the cat isolated in the bathroom, he went to search his pantry for some food and managed to fish out a can of tuna. When he came back, the cat looked very much transformed; with the removal of the gunk, its fur attained a feathery soft appearance. It chirped with anticipation, the scent of the meal definitely having registered with it. Frank sat on the floor nearby watching it all the while. It ate until it had licked the bowl clean. The kitty resumed cleaning itself afterward.

 _At least it seems you do care about cleanliness. Unlike some people I know._

Once the cat had reached a level of grooming it was satisfied with, it sauntered over to Frank, purring, and quickly settled in his lap. Frank finally dared to pet it and was impressed with how soft and utterly fluffy it was. Images of anime characters exclaiming over how kawaii something was popped into his mind until he shook his head of it. The cat continued to purr contentedly until Frank realized it was fast asleep.

 _Okayyy, how do I get up now?_

He really didn't want to wake it up. So for a while he sat there, leaning up against the bath wall with his elbow on the closed toilet, his head resting on his hand.

 _This is so unfair._

Even as he was internally complaining about not being able to move, the cat's presence in his cross-legged lap was calming as he found himself absent-mindedly stroking its back for a while. Before he knew it, he felt he was nodding off a bit and snapped himself out of it as he didn't want to pass out in the bathroom. Carefully, he transferred the cat to his arms; the cat had passed out so thoroughly, it didn't wake even with all the stirring. Frank located a box leftover from a new tech toy he had shipped recently and placed an old shirt in it for the cat as bedding. Gently laying it down, he was amazed at the difference the bath had made. It looked more a like normal cat, on the very thin side, but less like the wreck it was when he first saw it.

 _You clean up well at least._

Frank took advantage of the time to step out and pick up some supplies since yes he was doing this. When he returned, he dared a peek at the still sleeping kitty. It had hardly moved. He lingered on the tranquil moment a little longer, before yawning deeply, and heading off to bed himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you listen to the music while reading this, you will make me happy.


	4. Monday, Day 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pritchard tries getting some work done with his house guest around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katuchat - Pink Lemonade  
> https://youtu.be/LrWOINlE_Ms
> 
> Musical inspiration for this chapter.

Frank awoke to a distant sound of something clattering to the ground followed by scampering and warbled meowing.

 _Huh, what?_ He checked his clock. _Oh it's too early for whatever this is._

He got up to check on the kitty in the bathroom only to find that it had somehow opened the door and was running about the house somewhere unfettered.

_Are you telling me it hacked the door open? No . . .That's silly._

He figured he probably just hadn't closed it properly in his tired trudge towards bed last night.

The cat suddenly popped out of nowhere, tail up, ears alert, trilling as it came up to his legs and weaved itself in and around them, rubbing the entire side of its body length against his shins. But Frank was busy looking around, trying to locate whatever mess the cat might have gotten into. He soon found his answer in a pile of action figures that had fallen from their shelf on the bookcase in the corner of the living room. Settling them back in their proper place, he scratched his head wondering what exactly had happened since they were quite high up. The cat followed him and mewed at him again as if trying to explain, its eyes bright.

"Well, _you_ seem to have more energy today. Maybe _you_ should have cleaned that up. Thank god I don't plan on being your maid long term." He shook his head.

The cat sat down and appeared to swish its tail around itself proudly. It continued mewing a lot, sounding apologetic even, but was probably just whining.

"Oh right, you're probably hungry." 

Frank went to fix himself and the cat some breakfast. When it was done, the kitty took to cleaning itself again. The hacker took the opportunity to try to cat-proof the living room as best he could, and organized the clutter of video games and tech paraphernalia. He didn't plan to keep the kitty, just make sure the place was secure while he researched a better, more permanent living situation for it. Curiously, the cat watched as Frank busied himself with organization, shifting things to and fro, and soon it turned into an all out cleaning rampage as he got swept up in the task. By the end, the place was cleaner than it had in been in years. He'd gotten much done and there was still a lot of day left. Frank felt proud of himself and wanted to capitalize on his productive state. He seemed unaware of just how much the cat had been following him around. Observing. Patiently waiting.

"Time to get back to my script."

Settling comfortably at his desk, he pulled up his notes and started typing away. Soon the kitty hopped up onto his desk, sitting just off to the side of it, very interested in the screen. Frank side-eyed it, but continued typing. The cat's eyes soon latched onto the cursor and text prompts, and started batting at their movements, much to Frank's annoyance. 

"Stop. . . .hey, stop that. Some of us are trying to work here."

He lifted the cat off his desk and mechanically placed it on the floor. But the cat hopped back up to resume its pursuit as if nothing happened. Frank moved it again and the cat also repeated its behavior.

"Oh great, caught in a loop, just what I wanted."

He tried moving to another room to work. It just followed him. He tried locking it out of his room, but it would just scratch at the door. He tried ignoring it, working around it, all to no avail.

"Well, I got _some_ work done at least, no thanks to you."

A whiny series of meows followed his words in response.

"If you're begging for food, you're not getting any more until dinner. You can die from eating too much too fast, you know."

Still, Frank found a few treats to give it in hopes of tiding over what he thought was the cat's appetite for food until then. He gave up on the script, deciding he earned himself another go at games anyway. This time he dug into new games on his list. The cat watched him fiddle with the game controller spastically as he button mashed through surprise quicktime event sequences. During a cutscene, the feline finally ambled over and batted at the thumbsticks with its left paw.

"Oh you wanna play? I bet you'd be better than Jensen at least."

Not that he'd ever played with Jensen. Or that he'd ever thought about that to a great extent. No certainly not.

Frank was distracted from his thoughts by the cat now launching a full out attack on the controller, grabbing at it with its front paws and rabbit-kicking at it with its back paws, the appearance of which looked not too far off from Frank's a few minutes ago.

"What the -- I take it back-- what the hell has gotten into you? Did you get into my caffeine pills? Are you possessed?"

The cat suddenly bolted away from wrangling the controller, hopped up onto a bookcase, then leapt from that onto a desk housing the floppy disk drive choir and ran across it, inadvertently activating it and playing the last song that had been loaded. In a flash, the cat then landed at a spot on the floor a few feet in front of Frank. Then, as the opening notes of Darude's Sandstorm started, the feline positioned itself sideways to Frank, its back arched upwards and hair standing on end, its tail poofed out and curled in a cursive S-shaped flourish, all the while walking stiff-legged and stiltedly towards the hacker. It was the spitting image of a Halloween cat decoration.

"Oh goodie, just my luck to cross paths with a witch's cat. It's nowhere near October you know."

Pritchard moved towards the floppy disk drive choir to turn it off, but the kitty was in between him and it and interpreted that as an advance on itself so it bolted again. In a blur, the cat raced around the space as if it were chasing after some invisible enemy, bouncing off walls, dashing along floors and counters at dizzying speeds, sending papers flying off desks and various knick knacks tumbling. Frank wasn't sure he should even try to catch it to stop it as he was barely able to stay out of its way in the first place.

"WHAT ARE YOU EVEN PARKOURING AROUND FOR?! THERE AREN'T ANY LASERS ANYWHERE!"

Frank plopped himself down on a chair, electing to wait out the storm of activity. He lost track of the cat as it disappeared behind some furniture and didn't pop out again. He continued scanning from his seat and was just about to get up when --BAM-- the cat pounced towards him from the side coming to a stop mere inches from him to stand on its hind legs with its forelegs spread out in a 'Gotcha!' pose. Frank let out a yelp as the action took him completely by surprise and caused him to trip over his chair as he half stood up to flee, landing flat on his back. After a few moments, Pritchard calmed down and the feline saw fit to approach him normally this time. It meowed inquisitively as if asking if he was okay.

"You very nearly scare me half to death and that's all you have to say?" 

Noiselessly, the cat laid down, its eyes wide.

"Well then I guess it's true. You are bad luck."

It rolled over onto its back while eyeing him, looking like it was trying to imitate Pritchard's position, and appearing ridiculously cute doing so. Frank rolled his eyes while trying to suppress a smile.

 _Good grief. Just my luck indeed._  
\------------  
Some time later, Pritchard was back at his computer working on his script after cleaning up after the cat's rampage. He'd finally come up with the idea to find a program he could run on his tablet to distract the cat from bothering him. The app shifted between images of a virtual mouse scurrying across the screen to those of fish darting around in a pond. It kept the cat entertained for a good while until it finally went back to where Frank sat writing. He thought the loop would start again but the cat instead just hunkered down in front of the keyboard, seemingly exhausted. The kitty slowly closed its eyes at Frank, the tip of its tail tapping periodically. The drowsy eyed look was contagious and Frank felt his eyelids grow heavy too.

"Stop . . . . . . . distracting me. . . . . . . . from my work." Frank tried to squelch his yawn and failed. 

When he opened his eyes again, he found that the cat had stretched out and decided it was most comfortable with one of its forelegs sprawled across his keyboard. It looked so utterly peaceful. Frank didn't want to fully move it so he continued typing, sometimes lifting the paw to get at certain keys, then replacing it. Since he wasn't getting much done this way, he decided to follow the cat's lead and head to bed himself after leaving out food for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The way Frank's floppy disk drive choir sounds:  
> https://youtu.be/ZFmC7hd1hno

**Author's Note:**

> I think the pets AU takes place in some magical version of Human Revolution where Frank and Adam managed to prevent the whole Aug Incident from happening.


End file.
